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Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Animal Adaptations Art Lesson

This is a cute craft that I like to incorporate into my animals unit. I do this craft with my students when we are learning about animal adaptations. This craft is fun and easy, but most importantly it usually sparks some creative thinking and conversation about different animals and what predators and environmental hazards each animal needs to protect itself from. This also leads to conversation about why each animal looks, moves, and protects itself the way it does, and how these characteristics help animals survive in their environment. You might have a discussion about why birds have wings so they can fly away from predators, a giraffe has a long neck so that it can eat the leaves off of the tallest trees, and rhinoceros uses its horn to help defend itself.

To do this craft you need a variety of images of animals. My students cut up old National Geographic magazines. Students can then choose different animal parts from the animal images to create a new animal. You can then have a class discussion about each of the animal's parts, their purpose, and how it helps each animal survive its environment.
You can find this, and other great animal lesson ideas in my Wild About: Animal Unit.